Bright needs, dark desires: Public preferences and balancing the benefits of artificial light and natural darkness at night in Aotearoa New Zealand

Supplementary Information S2 E Cieraad & J Dalley (2025). Bright needs, dark desires: public preferences and balancing the benefits of artificial light and natural darkness at night in Aotearoa New Zealand. People and Nature Conditional inference trees of the importance ratings for benefits derived from anthropogenic light (ALAN) and natural darkness at night Each Conditional inference tree (CTREE) depicts a series of statistically significant binary splits based on covariates, selected via permutation tests. Internal nodes represent decision points based on these covariates, while terminal nodes show the empirical distribution of the observed responses for all observations that reach that node. Each figure defines, for each of the benefits derived from ALAN and darkness, how the respondents' importance rating varies across different subgroups defined by the tree structure. important The table below shows the available explanatory variables used in the generation of each tree, and the values/codes as used in the following figures (see also Table 2 in the main text for a description of each variable). ≤2 ≤4 ≤0 >0 ≤2>2 >4 >2 ≤1 >1 01 Light ~ developed Urban−rural now Light ~ developed Urban−rural now Light ~ good Asian N = 204 N = 471 N = 101 N = 28 N = 57 N = 107 N = 32 14 46 46 59 39 0 1 4 53 121 205 88 0 1 4 19 31 38 9 0 1 11 7 5 4 1 0 1 2 4 9 33 9 0 1 1 7 24 34 41 0 1 2 9 21 0 1 Proportion of responses Light for Traffic safety Importance ≤2 ≤1 ≤4>4 >1 >2 Light ~ prosperity Light ~ wellbeing Urban−rural now N = 577 N = 24 N = 268 N = 131 29 81 187 191 89 0 1 8 4 4 6 2 0 1 8 24 68 106 62 0 1 4 5 18 54 50 0 1 Proportion of responses Light for Orientation Importance ≤2 ≤4 ≤40 ≤0>0 >40 ≤1>1 >4 >2 Light ~ good Urban−rural now Age Dark ~ bad Light ~ wellbeing N = 146 N = 234 N = 336 N = 152 N = 31 N = 101 10 22 38 46 30 0 1 7 18 56 87 66 0 1 8 24 70 134 100 0 1 1 6 21 55 69 0 1 8 4 9 7 3 0 1 2 4 9 24 62 0 1 Proportion of responses Light for Property crime Importance ≤3 Female ≤2>2 Male ≤1 >1 ≤0 ≤3>3 >0 >3 Urban−rural now Sex Light ~ developed Light ~ good Impairment Gazing up N = 358 N = 75 N = 244 N = 73 N = 33 N = 83 N = 134 12 24 58 142 122 0 1 1 1 8 21 44 0 1 8 26 68 102 40 0 1 2 5 16 32 18 0 1 1 2 11 19 0 1 2 11 21 27 22 0 1 15 19 32 42 26 0 1 Proportion of responses Light for Personal safety Importance ≤1 ≤1 01 >1 ≤0 >0 ≤26 >26 >1 ≤0 0 ≤1>1 1 >0 ≤2 ≤28 >28 >2 Light ~ wellbeing Dark ~ wellbeing NZ European Light ~ wellbeing Age Dark ~ underdeveloped Asian Light ~ prosperity Light ~ good Age N = 74 N =200 N = 192 N = 28 N = 137 N =51 N = 102 N = 26 N =24 N = 102 N = 64 24 23 16 7 4 0 1 95 63 34 8 0 1 133 42 10 3 4 0 1 5 10 9 4 0 1 81 29 22 3 2 0 1 28 12 8 3 0 1 37 26 26 10 3 0 1 3 7 7 6 3 0 1 4 9 10 1 0 1 29 20 35 16 2 0 1 68 23 19 8 0 1 Proportion of responses Light for Advertising Importance ≤1 ≤1 ≤0 1 >0 ≤2>2 >1 >1 ≤3 ≤0 01 >0 >3 Light ~ wellbeing Dark ~ poverty Light ~ wellbeing Urban−rural now Light ~ prosperity Dark ~ underdeveloped Asian N = 309 N = 248 N = 43 N = 31 N = 151 N = 24 N = 171 N = 23 157 87 56 7 2 0 1 71 92 61 17 7 0 1 25 11 6 1 0 1 7 8 8 5 3 0 1 42 44 47 14 4 0 1 6 10 5 3 0 1 23 35 64 37 12 0 1 2 1 4 5 11 0 1 Proportion of responses Light for Decoration Importance ≤1 0 1 ≤3>3 >1 ≤2>2 Light ~ wellbeing NZ European Urban−rural now Light ~ good N = 148 N = 406 N = 77 N = 283 N = 86 16 27 48 41 16 0 1 67 79 154 79 27 0 1 22 22 24 72 0 1 17 51 107 78 30 0 1 2 9 26 27 22 0 1 Proportion of responses Light for Recreation Importance ≤1 ≤3 >3 ≤2>2 >1 ≤2>2 Light ~ wellbeing Urban−rural now Urban−rural growing−up Light ~ good N = 539 N = 44 N = 48 N = 283 N = 86 71 98 165 148 57 0 1 19 14 7 3 1 0 1 7 10 17 11 3 0 1 10 37 91 94 51 0 1 1 9 14 30 32 0 1 Proportion of responses Light for Productivity Importance ≤1 ≤2 ≤0>0 >2 >1 ≤1 >1 ≤3 ≤2>2 >3 Dark ~ wellbeing Gazing up Dark ~ wellbeing Gazing up Dark ~ wellbeing Dark ~ wellbeing N = 113 N = 146 N = 150 N = 71 N = 252 N = 172 N = 96 41 28 30 8 6 0 1 23 39 43 30 11 0 1 18 29 46 34 23 0 1 15 15 15 21 5 0 1 16 27 96 83 30 0 1 4 19 43 75 31 0 1 2 6 7 28 53 0 1 Proportion of responses Darkness for Rhythm of people Importance